Poster Image
$20
Item#: 2007SYR14
Purchase Details
11x17-inches, printed on heavy weight (100-pound) Hammermill cover paper. We package each print with a piece of chipboard in a clear plastic sleeve.
You also receive…
An information page with photos of the artist and poet, and hand-written comments from each.
Medium- and large-format posters are available by custom order. Contact us for details.
Poem Inspiration Location
Our Irish Landmark
poster information
Description
Our Irish landmark
Green light proudly wears the crown
Tipperary Hill
Part of my heritage is Irish. So I've always been interested in the country, it's culture and history. In 2005, my husband and I traveled to Scotland and Ireland. When we returned I did more research on places we visited, read famine diaries and learned of the dark and desperate passages out of Ireland on the coffin ships. I discovered that my great grandfather arrived in Canada after surviving the long voyage on one of those ships.
The traffic light on Tipperary Hill symbolizes the spirit of the Irish who came to live in Syracuse. They settled here, worked on the canal, and helped our city grow in other ways while enjoying a newfound freedom from the hunger of Ireland. I celebrate their endurance, humor and lust for life.
In being Irish and growing up in the Syracuse area, I made a connection with its rich ancestry from a young age. The Tipperary Hill neighborhood is rooted deeply in the city's history and has become a proud symbol of its Irish heritage.
When I was given the opportunity to illustrate the poem, I wanted to show the Tipp Hill traffic light, which has the green over the red, as a beacon for the Irish spirit. By reflecting this light in the window to Coleman's Irish Pub on the hill, it becomes a doorway for all to open and step through.
To me, being Irish is about life, music religion and faith. These qualities are those which should be held high and taken wherever you go. Thus, celebrating family, friends and heritage has always been important to me as well as the City of Syracuse.